Hoskinson's Sandpit Report: February 17

Today I went to the sandpit for about 3-1/2 hours.  When I got there it was fairly pleasant.  There were a lot of gulls loafing around about a hundred yards out and I saw a couple of adult Thayer's.  I was beginning to think that though there were chances of rain for the afternoon they might have been inaccurate, when Joseph called and said that "it's snowing and raining at our place and probably will be there soon.''  This inspired me to search for shelter, which I found in the form of a metal trailer of sorts.  It snowed for a little while and after it stopped I could look at the gulls again.  The same intermediate 2nd cycle Thayer's/Kumlien's that we saw on the 12th had flown in, but it was too far out to get more conclusive pictures.  The wind had really kicked up and was blowing very hard, making it very difficult to I.D. the sitting gulls.  After a while a bunch of gulls flew in and among the Herring and Ring-billed  I saw my first Lesser Black-backed of the day.  By now I was getting pretty cold so I called mom to see when she was coming by to pick me up.  She said it would be another hour.  Wow! By the time she got there I was really cold, and had only seen one more Thayer's as compensation.  Overall this was one of the worst days as far as gull numbers that I have had this year with only about four Thayer's, two Lesser Black-backed, and about five hundred of both Ring-billed and Herring.

Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Photo by Andrew

Andrew